iColo uses 40% of its total power consumption to cool its 1 megawatt NBO-1 data centre in Karen. The soon-to-be-commissioned 6-megawatt NBO 2, right next door, will need even more.
In this modern age of AI, however, a megawatt is an approximation error. Training a single GPT-4 class language model requires about 50,000 megawatt-hours. To run the model, a lot more is required. Microsoft’s data centre campus in Wisconsin, for example, needs the equivalent of a third of Kenya’s total megawattage.
This megawattage must be available 24/7, effectively disqualifying wind, solar and biomass (or fancy charcoal).
Elsewhere, the company has partnered with Constellation Energy to restart a reactor at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania and plug the 835-megawatt gap in firm, clean, and safe carbon-free baseload it needs. Like Fukushima, Three Mile Island is the site of a nuclear accident 37 years ago that has killed no one over the ages, but that has become one of the rallying calls for pro-bono anti-nuclear zealotry all over Kenya.
Also Read: If We Are Getting Power Plants On Boats, Let A Few Be Nuclear
The Silicon Savannah has several submarine cables landing on its coast, adding both physical and digital dimensions to its reputation as a gateway to the region. Citing power shortages, Microsoft still scrapped its plans to invest 130 billion shillings to host digital services here in Kenya. Why and how a population consuming barely over 290 kilowatt-hours per person annually managed to convince itself that there was a glut in electricity supply will forever remain a mystery, but the consequence, as seen last month, is concrete.
A hyperscale data centre operator evaluating a potential location for regional cloud infrastructure faces a simple question: what is the firm power capacity available on a 99.999 % uptime basis at the point of grid connection? Kenya’s National Artificial Intelligence Strategy, developed under the State Department for ICT, is ambiguous.
Global Leaders Turning to Nuclear for AI Competitiveness
Other documents, such as South Korea’s AI semiconductor strategy, do the opposite. The country operates 26 nuclear reactors, providing about 30% of electricity generation, under an energy policy framework that names cheap baseload electricity as a precondition of manufacturing competitiveness. Its current administration reversed nuclear phase-out plans by former President Moon Jae-in, citing nuclear power’s load-following capability that renewables lack.
This is a constraint imposed by the laws of physics and will not be repealed by pro-bono pro-energy poverty riots choreographed by zealots who think we have forgotten attempts to derail the Sondu Miriu Power Project.
They actually fought the Late Raila Odinga tooth and nail on this, failing spectacularly.
China’s 14th Five-Year Plan (2021–2025) explicitly links energy security to digital and manufacturing competitiveness. Its total installed nuclear capacity exceeded 70000 megawatts in 2025, and it aims to triple that to 150000 megawatts within a decade.
Bengaluru’s technology hub is named in India’s National Nuclear Energy Mission that targets 22,480 megawatts of nuclear capacity by 2031, courtesy of the 14.1 billion Kenyan Shillings over five years, an explicit declaration of India’s awareness that the symbiosis between nuclear power and AI infrastructure is the new paradigm.
The UAE’s Barakah Nuclear Power Station, with a capacity of 5,600 megawatts, powers Masdar City AI and cloud computing infrastructure. Its partnerships with Microsoft, Google, and AWS for regional data centre capacity are literally nuclear powered.
Also Read: The Path To Ending Energy Poverty In Kenya Is Paved With Conventional Nuclear Reactors And Not Smrs
NuScale VOYGR, licensed by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2020, offers modularity in 77-megawatt units. UK’s Rolls-Royce is targeting 470-megawatt units ready in the next decade. X-energy’s Xe-100 pebble-bed reactor design and Academic Lomonsonov from Russia come mounted on barges.
Google (Alphabet) has Kairos Power, and like Microsoft, Meta (Facebook) is partners with Constellation Energy. OpenAI’s Oklo Inc is developing micro-reactors that will co-locate with AI data sites. Documents like Kenya’s National AI Strategy must be clear that the only way to participate in the Global AI economy is to put megawatts where our mouths are.
Follow our WhatsApp Channel and X Account for real-time news updates.
